


Sleepless adventures

by Whiteghost37



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Nightmares, Self-Esteem Issues, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 20:02:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18630310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whiteghost37/pseuds/Whiteghost37
Summary: Virgil has been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. It leads to some... unexpected events.





	Sleepless adventures

 

Virgil was in a bad mood. Actually, he was in a horrible mood. He hated this. This sleeplessness he suddenly suffered from. Yeah, being unable to sleep wasn’t precisely new for him, but usually he managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep each night (with a few nightmares here and there). But being completely unable to sleep, tossing and turning _all_ _night_ was new. And it was frustrating. So, he was in an awful mood, which in turn made him avoid the others so his mood wouldn’t infect them. Though he couldn’t just stay in his room, it only reminded him of the past few nights.

He was pacing the mindscape, walking down random corridors he knew the others usually didn’t come to. Which made it even more surprising when he walked into someone:

“Ah, Virgil, there you are,” Logan said, looking pleased.

Virgil blinked:

“Logan? You don’t usually come here,” he said uncertainly.

“I was looking for you,” Logan stated.

“What for?” That earned him a sharp look from the logical side:

“You do recall we all agreed to have a movie night this evening?”

Virgil blinked again.

 _“Shit,”_ he thought.

“Right,” he said slowly.

He didn’t want to disappoint them, no matter how much he didn’t feel like it. And he had promised.

Logan looked at him and Virgil squirmed slightly:

“Is something the matter?”

Instinctively Virgil shook his head, not wanting the other side to know how awful he was feeling. If Logan became concerned about him, Virgil would only feel worse.

“Everything’s fine, let’s go to the others,” with that he sunk out of the corridor and into the common area.

Logan followed right behind him. Patton squealed delightedly as they appeared, and Roman sighed huffily:

“Finally! Sit down already.”

They sat, and the movie began.

 

* * *

 

Virgil opened his eyes, confused. When had he gone to bed?  
Slowly his senses started working and he realized he was not in a bed at all. In fact, his head was on someone’s lap, and there was a hand on his shoulder. It was… nice.

As soon as he thought that his heart started pounding faster. Who was he lying on? Was the person in question uncomfortable with his presence? (Why wouldn’t they be?) How could he just lie on someone without their consent? Was he really that selfish? How...? What if...?

A thousand questions invaded his mind and he panicked. In a move he wasn’t even aware he was capable of he flung himself out of the couch and into a corner of the room. His breathing was too fast and his heart was trying to escape his chest. He pressed a fist against his chest in an attempt to still it.

It was Logan he had been lying on. Logan who was now staring at him, along with the others.

“S… Sorry,” he gasped.

Then he sunk into his own room.

He landed by his door, which he locked and then slowly sunk to the floor, burying his face in his knees, trying to calm his breathing.

There was a knock on his door:

“Virgil?”

It was Logan. Oh no, he was probably here to reprimand him.

“Virgil, are you alright?”

Part of him wanted to answer, a small part of him that recognized that he needed help. A larger part of him wanted Logan to go away, he had already bothered him enough. Of course, neither part could win because he wasn’t able to get any words out right now.

“I’m coming in,” Logan informed him.

And so he did, through the floor rather than the door. A small part of Virgil his thankful for that, if Logan had tried to force the door open it would have slammed into his head, which would have hurt.

There was a hand on his shoulder, and Logan was talking to him in a low, soothing tone. It took a while for the words to register, as there was a strange whining noise in his ears. But the words reached him eventually. And with Logan’s help he managed to get his breathing under control.

For a while they just sat there, Logan’s arm around his shoulder, talking about his recent research, about space travelling of all things. But Virgil didn’t mind, it felt really nice to have someone at his side at a time like this.

 

* * *

 

It was happening again. For a week he had managed to sleep well, even getting a bit more sleep than usual. But now the sleeplessness was back. Now he didn’t need make up anymore, the bags under his eyes were completely natural.

He was pacing the mindscape again, feeling jittery. The other sides were probably asleep by now. It was sometime around midnight. He was in a bad mood once more, but he also felt… scared? Worried? He wasn’t sure. And he didn’t need to know. Right now he didn’t want to think about anything. But, of course, that was impossible.

His scattered, unfocused thoughts were interrupted by something… a noise. Singing, he realized. Then he also realized he was close to Roman’s bedroom. Of course.

Curiously he snuck closer to the closed door. He could hear the singing better now. It was nice. The prince had a stunning voice, not that he’d ever tell him that. But Virgil really enjoyed Roman’s singing, it was soothing.

Leaning against the doorframe he hummed along quietly. He stood there for some time before he had to stretch, feeling stiff. As he did his hand accidently knocked against the door. He stiffened, praying that the creative side hadn’t heard that through his singing. But then the door opened before he had time to react, and a hand pulled him through the door.

“Excellent timing, my chemically imbalanced romance, I was just wishing for a duet partner,” Roman said, striking a pose.

Virgil’s mouth quirked upwards at the prince’s outfit. It was a pair of red pajamas, with little, cartoonish yellow crowns scattered about it. It was… cute.

“Why are you awake at this hour?” he asked.

“Creativity can strike at any time, my dear dark knight. Now, take this,” with that Roman shoved a microphone at him.

That was when Virgil noticed the karaoke machine and groaned. But he didn’t protest. Though his singing was nothing compared to Roman’s he still did his best. It was nice actually, fun even. It made him forget his troubles for a while.

 

* * *

 

Roman’s room was always changing, depending on whatever fancy that had taken him that day. Virgil hadn’t actually been inside his room that often, but he had caught enough glimpses to figure that out. Though some things were always there, sometimes hidden if they didn’t fit the landscape but still there. The karaoke machine was one of those things, and the bed too, they changed in color and shape, but they were there.

Even though he knew this, Virgil wasn’t prepared to wake up in a meadow. He didn’t even recall falling asleep. But during some point after the singing they must have retired to the bed. Because it was a mattress he was lying on, even though it looked like grass. There were arms around him. For a moment he panicked, wondering who was trapping him. But then there was a familiar snore close to his ear and he relaxed. They were Roman’s arms. It was safe.

He smiled and then wriggled carefully out of the embrace, tucking the covers more tightly around Roman and left the room quietly.

 

* * *

 

He was in the kitchen. It was the middle of the night and once again he couldn’t sleep. This was getting on his nerves and he stared emptily into the fridge. The thoughts weren’t chasing each other around in his head for once. And that was weirdly frustrating, an empty mind was just as bad as a full one it seemed.

Slowly he started taking out ingredients. Vague thoughts of making the others breakfast guiding him. Since he couldn’t sleep he might as well do something useful.

“Virgil, kiddo?” The sudden voice and lights coming on made him flinch.

“Patton? What...?”

“I heard noises, so I went to see who was up,” Patton answered the question despite Virgil not asking it properly.

Oh no, wasn’t it enough that he couldn’t sleep himself, now Patton was suffering from it too because of him.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, staring at the floor.

Patton put a hand on his shoulder:

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just couldn’t sleep,” he mumbled.

Patton looked around curiously:

“Were you planning on cooking?”

“Um… yeah, I was going to take a stab at it at least,” he rubbed his arm self-consciously.

“That sounds great! Mind if I join you?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. If… if you want, I mean.”

Patton gave him a brilliant smile.

They ended up baking, all kind of goods. Both healthy bread and muffins for breakfast as well as other, sweeter, treats for later. It was nice, a bit messy but that just made it better.

As all the baked goods were cooling down on the kitchen island the two of them collapsed on the couch in the common area, exhausted but satisfied with their work. Virgil hadn’t been terrible at baking, even though some of what he made had ended up looking a bit funny he was still pleasantly surprised with the results.

 

* * *

 

When Virgil woke up he was confused. But then he realized where he was, and who he was lying on. He almost groaned, he had done it again. But he silenced himself when he realized Patton was sleeping as well.

Quietly he got to his feet and put a blanket on Patton. Since it was his fault Patton hadn’t got enough sleep that night he decided to let Patton sleep as he took care of breakfast preparations for once. He went to start the coffee.

 

* * *

 

He had figured it out. There was a pattern to when he slept well and when he didn’t. Shit. Could he be more pathetic?

No, he wasn’t going to bother the others with this problem. He had to solve it himself. He had managed before, and he would do so again.

 

* * *

 

 _He was floating. There was darkness around him. Stars too. It was kind of peaceful. Until he realized… He couldn’t move. He couldn’t move!_  
_And those weren’t stars at all. They were eyes. Hundreds of eyes. Looking at him. He tried to gasp, but the breath caught in his chest. Then, out of nowhere, mouths appeared. If he squinted there were noses too. Faces, he realized. There were hundreds of faces around him. Unkind faces. Mouths full of unnaturally sharp teeth. Judging, glaring eyes. Then they(it?) spoke, with one loud, echoing voice: “Mine.”_

_They(it?) swooped towards him, and then past him. He turned slowly in the direction they(it?) were headed and started to struggle. But he still couldn’t move. Logan, Roman and Patton were the targets. No, not them, take him instead. But then the three of them were gone, consumed by the faces._

Virgil screamed.

“Wake up Virgil.”

“Come one kiddo, open your eyes.”

“Virgil!”

He opened his eyes with a gasp and sat up abruptly. Three faces were close to his, staring at him worriedly. He felt relief welling up inside him. They were safe. Thank goodness.

 

* * *

 

He ended up telling them everything. They were sitting in the common area and Virgil was staring at the floor as he talked. He talked about his sleeplessness, how bad it had been lately, how it seemed to be helped by sleeping next to someone, and how that feeling of safety continued for a few nights afterwards so he got some more sleep.

His eyes were fixed to the floor, not wanting to see their eyes as they realized how pathetic he was, didn’t want to see the pity. He’d rather they hated him than pity him.

As he finished speaking there was silence for a moment, and he felt his heart sinking. Then Logan spoke:

“If you ask me there seems to be a rather simple solution to this problem.”

“Of course, this is no hardship,” Roman exclaimed.

“Sleepovers,” Patton squealed.

Virgil’s head snapped up, staring at them:

“Wait, what?”

“To assure you get the optimal amount of sleep we can take turns sharing our beds with you, it is quite simple as I said,” Logan explained.

“What? No! You shouldn’t have to…” Virgil didn’t want to make them do anything like that.

“Have to? Virgil, we want to,” Patton insisted.

Virgil shook his head, but before he could protest further Roman spoke:

“Out of all of us, I think I have the biggest and best bed. Virgil can join me for the rest of the night, and I will make sure he doesn’t have any more vile nightmares.”

“Hold on, from what I’ve gathered you shared your bed with him a few weeks ago. And I haven’t technically shared a bed with him at all, as I was still awake when he slept on me and we were on the couch,” Logan pointed out.

“Fine,” Roman huffed: “I suppose you can have him for tonight.”

“Excellent, come along Virgil.”

Virgil was too confused to protest as Logan dragged him along.

 

* * *

 

It became a regular thing, after Virgil had made absolutely sure they didn’t mind. They always seemed happy to see him when he knocked on one of their doors in the evening. He was too afraid that his bedroom would corrupt them if they slept in there, but they didn’t seem to mind that either.

They all had different routines before bed: Roman had noticed the stuffed Toothless Virgil had when they had woken him up from the nightmare and insisted he brought that along during the nights Virgil slept in his bed. They often ended up discussing movies as the lay in bed, and Roman had a lot of stuffed cartoon characters. Logan and Virgil could devolve in semi-deep discussions about a lot of philosophical subjects. Virgil sometimes made fun of Logan’s pajamas, he had several, all dark blue in color but with different objects; constellations, planets, question marks, magnifying glasses and so on. Patton and Virgil spoke of whatever topic Patton came up with, sometimes it was nonsense and other times it was deeper stuff. Patton’s pajamas were bright blue with dog-and catheads on them.

Virgil didn’t have much trouble sleeping anymore. Sure, the nightmares were still there, but there was always someone there to hold him after one.

It was nice.

The end

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfiction I've posted here on AO3. The first fanfiction I've written in a few years. And the first fanfiction for this fandom. So it's a triple threat. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> (And you can't tell me Virgil doesn't have a stuffed version of Toothless from "How to Train Your Dragon". I mean, how cute is that mental image?)
> 
> The talented Jazzy_J_Wolf drew an adorable picture of Virgil with Toothless. I strongly suggest you check it out:  
> https://jazzy-j-wolf.tumblr.com/post/184545284030/i-read-this-really-cute-fanfic-last-night-where


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